Thursday, September 13, 2012

Orderly Reviews

When I started this blog back in 2008, my original vision was to have a three-part "chord" consisting of philosophical ramblings, movie and website reviews, and tongue-in-cheek humour. The philosophical ramblings had been a trademark of mine when I was a commenter on other people's blogs. Because I had always been a spanking movie buff, I was obviously going to write reviews (as a matter of fact, my original conception had been to do a pure review blog). Third and last, I wanted to balance the philosophical stuff and my video voyeuristic obsessions with a healthy dose of dark, George Carlin-esque fun. I did not plan on ever writing much about myself as a person. After all, what is interesting about that? And I vowed to myself that Ludwig's Rohrstock-Palast would always stay as far away as possible from the style of the kinky couples blogs where people went on and on forever about their boring private lives. "Today, my master and I went out and bought a new whip..." Yaaawn! Screw that nonsense.

Well, it's four and a three-quarter years later, and things have certainly changed. My voyeuristic obsessions with spanking movies lessened considerably after I guest starred in some of my own. As is often the case when fulfilling a long-held dream, things you once considered so very damned important suddenly become much less so. My passion for writing movie reviews waned as well - I haven't done one since June 2010. And after meeting my beloved Kaelah, not only have I learned to appreciate kinky couples blogs, I am kind of writing one myself now. Or actually, she is writing most of it. We even have a post about shopping for whips.

Those are the great things in life - the unexpected, rather than the expected. Whatever "master plan" you have, it will sooner or later be overtaken by reality. And more often than not, reality turns out to be more intriguing than the master plan probably would have been.

But enough with the dime-store wisdom. The real purpose of this post is to make you all aware of a slight novelty on the blog. I have made a list of the movie and website reviews I wrote back in 2008-2010, which you can now find in a "quick links" section on the right. Ordered by production company and showing all the reviews at one glance, it is much more convenient to navigate and search than having to scroll through all the posts from the movie review and website review categories. I had planned to do such a list for some time now, so here it finally is.

The reason I did it now is because I plan to resume writing reviews. Yes, I think that after a break of two years, I have an interest in it again. There are still quite a few titles I would like to review, no shortage there. And while I was somewhat fed up with that particular kind of post two years ago, after having written several dozens of it, I am now starting to seriously miss it. I am also getting quite a few emails from people asking about what happened to the reviews, so I know that there are still a few movie buffs out there who miss them as well.

And who knows, maybe it will be a stepping stone towards getting me back to blogging more regularly again, about other subjects as well. I would love to tell you about Kaelah and myself, or maybe write a philosophical rambling again. But those are more challenging subjects, which I want to pull off just right, and I need to get back into the habit of writing first.

In any case, I think it will be very interesting to have a bit of the old mixed in with the new, and hopefully you will like reading some movie critiques again.

10 comments:

Ana said...

I think I hear Kaelah cheering in the background that you are getting into blogging again.

I think it's also nice to start with something tangible, and perhaps external, when trying to find your blogging rhythm after a time away. I struggled with that for a while when my identity as a ttwd blogger shifted, and for now I'm focusing on stories. It may only be a phase, but it is serving a purpose. I am betting that your different phases of blogging are each serving a purpose as well.

Best of luck!

Spearthrower said...

Excellent. I am sure that we are looking forward to your reviews. We've missed them!

Pandora said...

This is great news! I always enjoy Kaelah's posts but I've missed your writing, too. I can also empathise with how difficult it is to start writing again after time away. A structured series of reviews sounds like a great idea.

I have a huge backlog of reviews myself, which I've offered to write for various site owners, or just intended to but never got round to. I always procrastinate because it seems like such a mammoth task. I've considered borrowing your idea of splitting it up into a series of sub-headings and only answering those questions, rather than trying to give a holistic description of the site. That way, maybe they might actually happen!

Spankedhortic II said...

This is great news. I have missed your reviews especially the "Entire Story In Fewer Words Than Are In This Sentence" part, which I always imagined might be a bit of a challenge for you, as you seem to be more comfortable with more extended written pieces.

Prefectdt

Peter8862 said...

Careful Ludwig ! You are setting rods for your own back. Just let the blogs come and decide later just what pattern they have taken. Blogs written for fun are much more likely to be successful than those written from the compulsion of a publicly pre-set plan.

Ursus Lewis said...

The reviews are the reason why I found and loved this blog in the first place. But things evolve and so did your blog. I wouldn't want to miss Kaelah's posts anymore, but if you mix them up with some more of your own, that's certainly a plus. Looking forward to it.

Kaelah said...

@ Ludwig:
As the old saying goes, get yourself a girlfriend and life as you knew it is over! ;-) The funny thing is that it was really you who wrote the "Shopping for Whips" post. It's wonderful to have you back as a writer, my domcat, even if it is for reviews only right now. I am convinced that the mixture of our writing styles and topics is more interesting than my writing only. And maybe we can write the one or other joint post again as well. I enjoy those the most! :-)

Emen said...

I love the Orderly Reviews. Been reading all morning. What a lucky thing for me you decided to do this. I'm relatively new to your blog, and this world in general and I'm sure you know that with the best of intentions, and interest, it's very difficult to be able to go back and track posts through several years.

I can't imagine you'll be boring writing about your private life. When I was dithering about blogging a friend said "of course we're all writing about the same things. What matters is your voice in telling it".

I want to hear your voice as well as the brilliant K's. Bring it on.

Ludwig said...

Thank you all for the feedback. I've been a bit under the weather during the last week, hence the belated reply. But I'm feeling better now.

@ Ana: As long as you feel that what you are writing about fulfils you and that it keeps you and the readers interested, it has served its main purpose. That's my take on blogging.

@ Pandora: I know the problem you are talking about from personal experience. When writing a review, there is the temptation to try and recount the entire story of a movie or to describe, in exhaustive detail, every sub-section of a website. The danger is that you never get that kind of over-long review finished, or that it will be fairly dry and boring even if you do. So I try to avoid that. The purpose of a review is not to summarise an entire movie or site. It is to give the reader a general, accurate overview of what to expect, and to work out the specific character or quality of the object of review. What makes the movie or site different from others? What is the tone, the feel, the character? That, for me, is the main goal I'm trying to accomplish.

@ Prefectdt: It's always a challenge to come up with new, witty "Entire Story In Fewer Words Than Are In This Sentence" summaries! I stole the concept from The Ruthless Guide to 80s Action (with their permission).

@ Peter: I hear your point, but I'm the kind of guy who has to have a plan. I can meet friends at the pub or go on a refreshing walk without a plan (unlike Kaelah, who literally needs a plan for everything!), but when it comes to structured activities like writing, I have to have a plan. "Lets just do it and see what happens!" is not an approach that works for me.

@ Emen: I'm glad you discovered the old reviews. Yes, I know how hard it is to read up on old entries from a blog you just recently discovered. So many interesting blogs, so little time. I have the same problem myself with other people's stuff.

Kaelah said...

@ Ludwig:
Hey, I don't always need a plan! I usually need several plans, one for any case. But I have also shocked people with extreme flexibility! Okay, I have to admit that this is just a trick, though. I can be extremely flexible if said flexibility is built into my current plan (and my current plan is to build more and more flexibility into my plans; as far as big changes in my life go, I think I am doing quite well)... ;-)